Grifster reporter suffers ultimate grift

In case you’re wondering whether there’s a stable future in breaking news about young Brooklynites who steal money from other young Brooklynites for a story that rampantly spreads as a cultural meme, don’t wory. There isn’t.

Doree Shafir, who broke the infamous Hipster Grifter story for the New York Observer, was laid off last week, along with several other of the paper’s top writers.

Haber and Doree are both Gawker veterans, and both are extremely good bloggers and writers of real journalism, too. Doree just broke the freaking Hipster Grifter story, for god’s sake. Spencer Morgan is Manhattan’s finest chronicler of annoying men. The paper is clearly in very, very tough financial shape.

Everybody’s sick of hearing about the grifster story by now, but there’s no doubt that Shafir did a detailed and professional reporting job with it. The story on its own was solid and well-done.

The story probably brought more hits to the NY Observer than anything else recently. but it wasn’t enough.

Statement from Christopher Barnes, President, Observer Media Group –

Reducing the size of our reporting staff was not an easy decision to make. Unfortunately, the New York Observer is not immune to the economic pressures being felt industry-wide. The reality is: we have to cutback in order to move forward. This is an incredibly challenging time for newspapers, with newsrooms across the country trying to find ways to do more with less. But, I’m optimistic that the Observer will weather this storm and emerge stronger.